Big freeze of Eskimology course

The possibility to learn eskimology has disappeared as University of Copenhagen with the unique faculty stopped to admit new students in 2016. That was the first time in history of faculty of Eskimology and Arctic studies. The main reason is government funding decline.

Despite challenging times, Copenhagen’s representative called the situation «a freeze”. However, university is going to restart admission in 2017. But that would not be easy as government continues to cut the funding and to promote the universities with massive courses. Eskimologists do not intend to take it lying down.

You may think the subject is to learn about igloos, northern lights and penguins. In fact, the studies of Arctic seem to be all the more important. Humanity is facing different environmental issues meanwhile states and extraction companies are increasingly interested in mining natural resources of this region.

The program of Eskimology was created at Copenhagen in 1920. The students have been studying language, historical and cultural background of Arctic indigenous people. Nowadays these people call themselves Inuit instead of Eskimo. However, the course — Eskimology — has still the same name.

What is the main part of the subject? The students focus mostly on social and political problems influencing Greenland that has a history of Danish colony, such as global warming and mining its resources. The students come not only from Denmark and Greenland. There are also British, French, Polish and North American students.

The admission to the course was frozen after the government refused to fund University of Copenhagen in amount of £52m, followed by over 500 job losses. Now the university shows the growing attention to massive fields of study while other courses were suspended or abolished entirely.

Danish government funds all universities of country, and they are free to enroll. At this time, they have to decide whether to further develop sector-specific courses or not.

In contrast, Eskimologists assure that the course is of the highest importance. The world issues, such as ice melting, Greenland independence and extraction of resources, are actively discussed around the world. CEOs of huge extraction companies and even the whole states apply to Copenhagen for detailed information. One of three faculty professors, Frank Sejersen, makes a research on how Greenland’s citizens should cooperate with huge exctraction companies.

In 2009 Greenland gained self-government from Denmark. Up to the moment, mining in Greenland was under the control of Denmark. Now Russian, Canadian and Norwegian companies are particularly interested in this region.

A lot of Greenlanders want to take these tempting offers but Prof Sejersen doesn’t think this is the right idea. He and other researchers figured out that in order to gain economic independence, Greenland should have a great number of mines. Even though, earned money should be turned into long-term investments. Eskimologists study how mining industry influences on social equality in Greenland.

The international consolates and companies send many requests to Copenhagen. They want to understand precisely the regional policy and related issues. As a university with state support, it provides them with detailed information for free. Nevertheless, with cuts expected Eskimologists face uncertain future.

Despite this, Prof Sejersen is sure that Eskimology can have a leading role in Arctic study.

Head of Greenland's only university, Tiny Parks, believes that Eskimology course had a positive impact on the relations between Denmark and Greenland. The existence of this faculty strengthened the long-lasting cooperation between two universities, which in turn encourages many benefits for study and research.